F-105F Collection

F-105F Collection

F-105F Collection

The F-105F was a supersonic fighter bomber used by the United States Air Force. It was the third F-105 in production and the F-105G would later be modified from the F-105F. It was manufactured by Republic Aviation, which between 1963 and 1964 produced 143 F-105Fs, or Thunderchiefs (sometimes called “Thuds”). The last of these was delivered in January of 1965. Even so, the F-105Fs were used until the United States ended their involvement in Vietnam.

The two-seat F-105F was produced for the Vietnam War; where it was deployed as a low-altitude, high speed fighter-bomber, capable of carrying up to 14,000 pounds of bombs and missiles. The rear cockpit of the F-105F was a duplicate of the front cockpit, which allowed either pilot to have control of the aircraft.

The F-105F was 67 feet long, 20 feet 5 inches tall, and had a max weight of 54,580 pound. It had a cruising speed of 596 miles per hour, a maximum speed of 1,386 miles per hour, and it contained one Pratt & Whitney J75-P-19W engine. A modified F-105F, known around the Air Force as the EF-105F, though still officially called the F-105F, added jamming equipment, AGM-45 Shrike anti-radiation missiles, and some models even had combat cameras, armor plating, backup flight control systems, and automatic or manually-controlled weapons release.

The F-105F was also considered a “Wild Weasel” aircraft because it was used by the United States against the North Vietnamese to destroy surface-to-air missile sites with anti-radar missiles.

Items in this collection, from 1963, include introduction manuals to the F-105 F, as well as demonstration plans and reports from test flights at Langley, VA Air Force Base, Andrews, MD Air Force Base, and Ramstein, Germany Air Force Base. Additionally there are maps from test flights, correspondence, newspaper clippings, and photographs.

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